Munetake grabs MIL golf crown a year after watching it slip away

April 22, 2014 - Robert Collias

I wanted to post this golf story from Chris Sugidono because I remember covering the MIL tournament last season when Baldwin's Tyler Munetake had a significant lead and watched Lahainaluna's Malu Rosenthal run him down from behind.

This year, it was Munetake who did the scrambling to catch freshman teammate Justin Ngan, who I believe will be in this mix several more times.

Here is the start of Sugidono's story:

KAANAPALI - Baldwin High School's Tyler Munetake and Justin Ngan led a crowd of more than a hundred people Saturday at the Kaanapali Kai Course as they teed up for a sudden-death playoff to decide the Maui Interscholastic League individual boys golf champion.

"I just tried to stay close all day because I knew it was going to come down to these last three or four holes," Munetake said. "With this course you never know what's going to happen."

Munetake would par the hole and claim his first MIL title after Ngan had his par putt lip out from a couple of feet away.